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For all its arms and legs, the book remains something of a paper chase. Why? In part, one suspects, because the struggle occurs mostly in Little England, a political shire now shorn of power and purpose, where there may simply be too much central heating for the spy who comes in from the cold. (One of the reasons the mole becomes a mole, in fact, seems to be the 1956 Suez disaster. He joins Moscow in part to be where the historic action is.) Le Carré heightens suspense by lowering the number of suspect moles to two. The remorseless world of international espionage is thus transformed into something very like a traditional English detective story with the suspects figuratively locked in the English country house as the sleuth (Smiley) pokes around and the tantalized spectators wonder if he will dare pin it on the butler.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is one of the best tales of the year so far. But by le Carré's highest standards it is, as Evelyn Waugh remarked in another connection, simply "creamy English charm playing tigers."
—Timothy Foote